


The Lady and the Doctor

by Elwyne



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-10-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:56:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27186226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elwyne/pseuds/Elwyne
Summary: The Doctor meets Idris again - but she doesn't know him yet.
Kudos: 3





	The Lady and the Doctor

**Author's Note:**

> Script format.

INT: HOVEL: Rugs hang unevenly from every wall, and lie haphazardly all over the dirt floor. A WOMAN kneels before an ALTAR laid with gleaming crystals and guttering candles. Shadows hide her face and figure.

WOMAN  
Please, Goddess, a sign. I need your help. I can’t do this alone.

An abrupt WIND stirs the woman's hair and blows the candles out.

TITLES

EXT: MARKETPLACE, DAY: Bustling CROWD, shouting MERCHANTS. People of all planetary origins, shapes, colors, genders; shopping, eating, YELLING to be heard over the din. In a shadowy, rubbish-strewn corner, the TARDIS materializes. The door opens and the DOCTOR emerges, gray-haired and scowling.

DOCTOR  
This isn’t the Orion Nebula. Where have you brought me?

The TARDIS does not reply.

What’s here? Are you trying to tell me something? Have I not been eating my vegetables?

The TARDIS remains silent. The DOCTOR, muttering, sets off into the marketplace.

EXT: MARKETPLACE, DAY, DOCTOR’S POV: In the depths of the crowd, faces and noises on all sides, he notices the WOMAN walking ahead of him. Long dark hair spills down her back. She is human, of indeterminate age, thin and birdlike. She seeks something among the stalls. The DOCTOR, for lack of anything better to do, follows.

The crowd presses them together. She stops abruptly, turning to reveal her face: she is IDRIS.

DOCTOR  
You!

IDRIS  
What?

DOCTOR  
Sexy! No! Sorry! You’re my - no! You’re - 

IDRIS  
Do we know each other?

DOCTOR  
Not with this face. Wait! When is it?

IDRIS  
Are you mad?

DOCTOR  
Undoubtedly. But you, you’re - you’re you! You, before you were - before - 

IDRIS  
(turns to go)  
If you’ll excuse me - 

DOCTOR  
No wait! Please!

IDRIS turns back to him. Their eyes meet; their gazes hold. The CROWD flows around them, jostling, but they are no longer aware.

DOCTOR  
I could save you.

IDRIS  
(startled)  
From what?

DOCTOR  
(to himself)  
But then you would never - 

He turns and SHOUTS in the direction of the TARDIS, invisible beyond the stalls

Is this what you wanted? To save her? But then she’d never be you!

He turns back to IDRIS

Never mind that. If not you, it would just be someone else. I’m only one man; I can’t save them all.

IDRIS  
Who are you?

DOCTOR  
Oh, no one really. Just a traveler. Passing through, helping out.

IDRIS turns away and plunges back into the flow of people, quickly vanishing from the DOCTOR’S sight.

INT: TARDIS: The engines are silent, the screens dark. The DOCTOR paces in the shadows.

DOCTOR  
What do you want from me? She doesn’t know me. Wrong time, wrong face. She isn’t you yet.

(to himself)

Maybe not ever. But do I have the right? Would I be saving her, or just meddling?

(to the silent TARDIS)

You’re no help, you know.

A SCREEN flickers on, showing IDRIS’S face. She looks anxious and sad.

DOCTOR  
Yes, I know! But what do I do?

The TARDIS door clicks open. A sliver of daylight shines in.

DOCTOR  
Very well. If you say so.

The DOCTOR exits.

EXT: TARDIS: The market noises have faded; weary vendors are packing up their stalls. IDRIS is examining the blue box. She jumps back when the DOCTOR emerges.

IDRIS  
You!

DOCTOR  
Hello. Do you like my box?

IDRIS  
What is it?

DOCTOR  
It’s a TARDIS. Time and relative dimension in space.

IDRIS  
What does that mean?

DOCTOR  
(holds open the door)  
Would you like to see?

IDRIS  
In there? With you? Not likely!

DOCTOR  
(shuts the door)  
Suit yourself.

IDRIS  
But really, who are you? It says Police, but you don’t look like any police around here.

DOCTOR  
Why not? What are they like?

IDRIS  
Don’t you know? Where have you been?

DOCTOR  
Here and there. Like I said, I’m a traveler. You can call me the Doctor.

IDRIS  
Doctor!

DOCTOR  
Yes!

IDRIS  
(looks up to the sky and smiles, tears in her eyes)  
Oh Goddess, thank you! Thank you!

DOCTOR  
Er - 

IDRIS  
(takes the DOCTOR’S hand)  
You’re the answer to my prayers! Now come on!

She pulls him after her into the darkening street.

INT: HOVEL, EVENING: A shaft of purpling daylight falls across the darkened ALTAR as a rug is lifted from the doorway. IDRIS pulls the DOCTOR inside. They cross to another rug-shrouded doorway. The DOCTOR, noticing the ALTAR, slips on his SONIC SUNGLASSES.

DOCTOR  
Interesting.

IDRIS  
I called for help, you see, and you came. Police who aren’t police. A Doctor who isn’t a doctor - 

DOCTOR  
Now don’t be hasty, I did take a medical degree - 

IDRIS  
Don’t you see? It must be you. Please, you must help us.

DOCTOR  
Us?

IDRIS  
Through here.

IDRIS pulls the rug from the doorway. A blue-white light spills out from the room beyond. The DOCTOR steps into the doorway.

DOCTOR  
Oh no. No, no, no, no, no.

SCENE: INT. BEDROOM: The room is cramped and windowless; threadbare blankets lie in heaps on the floor. In the middle of the room, the blue-white light spills from an enormous, upsettingly familiar CRACK hanging in midair. 

DOCTOR  
Just like little Amelia’s wall.

IDRIS  
Please, Doctor, can you help? Can you bring them back?

DOCTOR  
Bring who back?

IDRIS  
My family.

She begins to cry. The DOCTOR takes her hand.

DOCTOR  
I think you ought to tell me everything.

INT: HOVEL, NIGHT: Moonlight streams in from the open doorway. Candles flicker on a low table. The DOCTOR and IDRIS sit on cushions on the floor.

IDRIS  
It’s all my fault, you see

DOCTOR  
I rather doubt that.

IDRIS  
It is, though. I took the crystals.

(She points to the ALTAR. Candlelight gleams from the faceted stones.)

There were so many, I never thought - but then - 

DOCTOR  
Then what?

IDRIS  
It was the middle of the night. We were all sleeping here - my mother, my brother, and me, and my brother’s little baby girl. They came back here after his wife was taken -

DOCTOR  
Taken?

IDRIS  
You’re really not from around here, are you?

DOCTOR  
I’m really not. Go on.

IDRIS  
The middle of the night. That - that thing opened. My mother and the baby fell through. My brother tried to go after them, but -

IDRIS covers her face with both hands. The DOCTOR fidgets with his sunglasses.

DOCTOR  
But what?

IDRIS  
It closed. He died.

DOCTOR  
I see.

IDRIS  
I thought of the crystals straightaway. I only took them to try and help; when Elan was taken, and my brother came home, and there was nothing to live on, I thought if I could just reach the Goddess, if I could help her see how bad things really were for us, then maybe - 

DOCTOR  
Does this Goddess often answer your prayers?

IDRIS  
She brought me you.

DOCTOR  
Ah. Well.

IDRIS  
Still, I thought I must have angered her. I tried to take them back, but look!

IDRIS reaches for a crystal; her hand passes right through it. The DOCTOR puts on his SONIC SUNGLASSES.

DOCTOR  
Aha! Interdimensional potential coexistence! Schrodinger’s cat!

IDRIS  
What?

DOCTOR  
Alive and dead at the same time. You see? Never mind. Let’s have another look at your crack.

INT: BEDROOM: The DOCTOR, SUNGLASSES on, examines the crack from all angles.

DOCTOR  
Alien prison, end of the Universe, exploding TARDIS, interfering Time Lords; what have you got up to this time?

The SONIC SUNGLASSES crackle. The DOCTOR takes them off, examines them, puts them on again.

I’ve propped it open once before. Let’s see now…

He presses a control on the SONIC SUNGLASSES. The CRACK spreads; blue-white light floods the room. 

Aha!

IDRIS  
Mama! Mama, can you hear me?

A faint WHISPER emerges from the CRACK, like dozens of voices calling from a great distance. IDRIS moves toward it. The DOCTOR catches her arm.

IDRIS  
Please, I must go after them.

DOCTOR  
This is a crack in the Universe. There’s no telling what’s on the other side. Could be the void. Could be the heart of a sun.

IDRIS  
If there’s any chance my family is still alive, I’ve got to try.

DOCTOR  
Of course you do. But let me try something first. Wait here.

The DOCTOR returns to the ALTAR. Bending toward the crystals, he presses a control on the SONIC SUNGLASSES. The crystals flicker, then grow solid. He scoops them up and returns to the BEDROOM.

DOCTOR  
Here, put these back where you found them.

IDRIS  
Don’t move, I’ll be right back!

(She leaves.)

DOCTOR  
Right. Now for the messy bit.

Tucking his sunglasses into his jacket pocket, the DOCTOR leaps into the light and disappears.

INT: HOVEL: IDRIS enters. The moonlight has faded; the candles are nearly burnt out.

IDRIS  
Doctor! Doctor, it’s done. I confessed to the Priestess. She said a thief might be forgiven if she proves worthy - 

(From the bedroom a BABY begins to cry. IDRIS gasps.)

Thank the Goddess!

INT: BEDROOM: IDRIS enters. The blue-white light falls on an older woman and a child, huddled among the blankets on the floor.

IDRIS  
Mama!

(She flings herself into the other woman’s arms.)

You’re home, you’re safe! It’s all going to be all right!

For a moment the two women hold each other, comforting the baby. Then IDRIS pulls away.

IDRIS  
But where’s the Doctor?

MAMA  
That man? He saved us.

IDRIS  
But where is he?

MAMA  
There was a trade.

IDRIS  
A trade? You mean - Oh no. No, I can’t, I can’t let you! Doctor!

IDRIS leaps to her feet and flings herself into the light.

EXT: HOUSE: The sky is empty of stars; the ground is littered with every kind of scrap. The DOCTOR stands in a small valley amidst heaps of broken TARDIS shells, playing with his yoyo. A silent OOD watches.

DOCTOR  
There. I’ve foiled you. You’ll never take her now.

(Planet and OOD remain silent.)

Even if you do trick me into coming here, you won’t fool us both. And I know how the story ends. I’ve beaten you, House. Twice.

AUNTIE and UNCLE, two zombielike figures dressed in rags, emerge from the shadows and stop to size up the DOCTOR.

AUNTIE  
Oh, you’ll do.

UNCLE  
Quite fresh, that one.

AUNTIE  
Yes, lovely.

DOCTOR  
Oh, no you don’t.

AUNTIE  
Don’t worry, dearie. We’ll take good care of you.

UNCLE  
House takes care of all of us.

DOCTOR  
Yes, I know all about House, thank you, and I’ll not be helping him kill a single TARDIS.

AUNTIE and UNCLE exchange a smirk.

AUNTIE  
Who said anything about a TARDIS, dearie?

UNCLE  
(chuckles)  
That’s right. You’re here to help us get a girl.

In a FLASH of blue-white light, the CRACK opens in the sky. IDRIS falls out, raising a cloud of dust as she lands among the junk. AUNTIE and UNCLE help her to her feet.

IDRIS  
Doctor!

DOCTOR  
Oh no. No no no!  
(He vanishes, along with the CRACK in the sky, in a clap of thunder.)

IDRIS  
(to AUNTIE and UNCLE)  
Hello. I’m Idris.

UNCLE  
‘Course you are, my girl.

AUNTIE  
Come this way, dearie. House will take good care of you.

INT: TARDIS: The DOCTOR leans heavily on the console.

DOCTOR  
I should have known. Should have seen right through it from the start. Of course it would be me that got her killed.

(The TARDIS whirrs)

No of course not. I don’t regret for a moment meeting you. Only that she had to die. That anyone had to die for us to meet.

(He looks up at the control column. It glows gently.)

Is that why you brought me here? Because it had to be me?

(The TARDIS remains silent.)

It’s not fair! Why does it always have to be me?

(He slams his fist down on the console, then pulls his hand away and cradles it in pain.)

Ow! Serve me right!

(He shakes his hand loose, then chuckles.)

The crystals, the crack, it was a trail. It was House all along. He set a trap for me. And I jumped right in like an idiot!

(He smiles up at the control column, then begins flipping switches and pulling levers. The TARDIS engines begin to stir.)

All right, old girl. Where one trail goes cold, we’ll find another. We’ll stop House yet. And who knows? Maybe we’ll even run into the Corsair.

(He flips a final switch. The TARDIS dematerializes.)

==THE END==


End file.
